Help Identify Spotted Sea Snake/EEL

[diver 85]

If it has yellow spots on the head and white

spots on the rest of the body, it's a sharptail eel---like this one......

 

[kdl]

I have a similar request. Just back from Curacao and need help identifying a yellow eel with black/brown markings. I don't think this eel is in my Reef ID book of the Caribbean, unless he's a juv Spotted Moray. Can anyone identify? I have 'tried' to attach the image.

 

[Walter]

That one is a type of moray, but I'm not familiar with those markings.

 

[jd950]

I am far from an expert on this, but I am guessing a reverse or inverted color Goldentail Moray.

 

[SkipperJohn]

I'm glad you posted this. Over the last 12+ years my GF has spotted these things and has gone hysterical. She is afraid of the water. Not so much the water but what swims in it. The first time I took her to Baby Beach, figuring it was like a pool, she was resting on the shore just in the water and put her hand down on one. She screamed and would have run all the way back home were it not for the Atlantic ocean. a few years later she took videos of one while I was snorkeling. A local said it was a "snake eel". I could find no other reference to this mysterious "snake eel" but several locals had heard of it.
I'll see if I can find the vid & post it.

 

[lmorin]

I am far from an expert on this, but I am guessing a reverse or inverted color Goldentail Moray.

That's what I guessed, too. Pretty much confirmed by images in the "Reef Fish Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas" (4th edition DVD). Compare image #11.

 

[amckelvie]

Hi
Was in Aruba and saw this spotted snake/eel. In person it look tan and cream/white spotted. Never saw the head. I did an internet search, but haven't found what it is. Hoping for a little help.

Are there a lot of them? Or am I just incredibly lucky?

Thanks,
Jifi

Sorry just joined so not sure when this thread was posted
This looks like a golden spotted snake eel or a sharptail. These seem quite common - at least in Dominica where I have seen several in the shallows
Try the reefguide.org

 

[tinao]

It is a sharp tail eel.. good pic with head in our March newsletter at Discover Diving photo gallery, event photos of dive students, staff and dive training